Jack Nicklaus won first of six Masters titles 50 years ago

Jack Nicklaus speaks to the media during a press conference prior to the start of the 2013 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club.

Photograph by: David Cannon
, Getty Images

AUGUSTA, Ga. — If you want a splash of cold water to the face, think of this: it was 50 years ago that Jack Nicklaus won the first of his six Masters titles.

He didn’t look much like the cool, blond Golden Bear he would become in the 1970s back then, but he had game.

Tuesday afternoon, summoned to the media centre at Augusta National to reflect on golf and life and the 1963 Masters, the now 73-year-old Nicklaus entertained reporters old and young with his customary eye contact, easy conversation and sharp memory.

“I didn't play very well the first round. I shot 74,” he said. “I came back with 66 the second round. And then we had the rain day. And the rain day, I played with (Mike) Souchak and it just poured, and in those days when they washed out a round, they washed out the whole round. They didn't start back at the same place.

“So I remember the 13th fairway, we had total 100 percent casual water and there was no place to drop it, and they said ‘Tough, play it.’ So we played it out of the water. Anyway, nobody thought we would finish the round. We finished, we got to the 18th green and that's when I looked at the leaderboard, and I'm colorblind, and I saw all these ones on the board. And I looked at my caddie, Willie Peterson, and I said, ‘Willie, how many of those ones are red?’ And he said, ‘Just you, Boss.’ And that's when I found out I was leading the tournament.

“Anyway, I finished off the next day. I don't even remember what I shot the last two rounds. But I won the tournament. Arnold put a green jacket on me, and it was a size 46 long. I could have used it for an overcoat. I was a 43 regular.”

Nicklaus returned in ’64 -- he would present Palmer with the jacket this time, the last major Arnold would ever win -- and the club still didn’t have a green jacket for him, so they gave him the one belonging to former New York governor Thomas Dewey (of “Dewey Defeats Truman” fame) -- “And I wore that one for about 10 years. They kept putting Tom Dewey’s coat on me every time I won the Masters,” Nicklaus said.

The club finally came up with a green jacket for Nicklaus in 1998, and that year, with a hip so bad it would soon require a replacement, he nearly won a seventh Masters at age 58.

News that Nicklaus wore a size 43 regular sports jacket shows you just how athletes, and golfers, have changed over the years.

“Arnold called me Big Jack. I'm anything but big. I'm just like ‘How ya doing?’ like this all day with these guys now; they are all huge,” Nicklaus said, mimicking a high handshake with a giant.

But of course, many questions were about his sixth win in 1986, at age 46, still the one golf tournament that remains green in the memories of a couple of generations of golf fans.

“I don't know whether my skills were all that diminished at 46. It's more my desire to work hard and prepare. I never thought that, you know, that I was deteriorated. I don't think I was quite old enough for the wheelchair yet,” he said.

“But I was playing a dozen tournaments a year. I was just going through the motions. But every once in awhile, you find lightning in a bottle and all of a sudden you get excited about something. Every time I come here, I always get excited, but just didn't perform for a couple of years. And then all of a sudden I performed one year.

“But this is the kind of golf course that brings it back to you.”

There were no world rankings when Nicklaus played so he has no idea how long he would have been ranked No. 1 during his career. But he won his 18 major golf championships over a period of a quarter of a century. Palmer, by contrast, won all seven of his between 1958 and 1964.

“Well, when you don't have a ranking system, how in the world would you know? You wouldn't even think about it. You would look back at it now, and say, gee, I suppose I would have been No. 1 for a while,” Nicklaus said.

“I think there's too much attention paid to it. It's like my majors, I never counted my majors until Bob Green (of the Associated Press) told me at St. Andrews in the '70s. He says, ‘Hey, Jack, that's ten, only three more to tie Bobby Jones.’ I said, ‘Really?’

“Honest, I swear, I never counted them. I knew that I was obviously somewhere near the top of the game. I certainly didn't like being second, so that was my goal, to stay right where I was.”

His record still stands, with Tiger Woods four behind. This spring and summer, with the resurgence in his game, seems to be a pivotal moment for Woods in his career long pursuit of the Golden Bear’s mark.

“I would have thought every summer was. I mean, I don't know ‑‑ obviously the older he gets and if he doesn't win, it makes my record move out further,” Nicklaus said. “But I've said it, and I continue to say it that I still expect him to break my record. I think he's just too talented, too driven, and too focused on that.”

On the other hand ...

“From this point, he's got to win five majors, which is a pretty good career for most people to start at age 37. He’s still got to go do it. He's played very, very well this spring. I think if he wins here, I think that it would be a very large step towards regaining the confidence that he has not won a major in, what, 3 1/2 years ...

“Five,” someone said.

“Really? Well, it's been a while. He's going to have to figure it out. But I think if he figures it out here, it will be a great boost for him. If he doesn't figure it out here, after the spring he's had, I think it will be a lot tougher for him.”

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